What people are saying about Islamic State attacks on Iraqi minorities.

Jacob Siegel, The Daily Beast: "On Thursday, the White House signaled that the U.S. might reverse its current policy by getting directly involved in Iraq to halt the worsening crisis. … The slow-motion massacre of the Yazidis, members of a small, ancient religious community who escaped to the mountains along with other groups after Islamic State militants overran their towns, began with a military defeat for the Kurds, one of the closest U.S. allies in the region. The Kurds' losses, and the subsequent plight of the Yazidis, call into question what role, if any, America is willing to play in Iraq."

George Packer, The New Yorker: "It's hard to know what, if anything, is left of the humanitarian responsibilities of the international community. The age of intervention is over, killed in large part by the Iraq War. ... There's barely any public awareness of the unfolding disaster in northwestern Iraq. ... The front-page news continues to be the war in Gaza, a particular Western obsession whether one's views are pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian, pro-peace, or pro-plague-on-both-houses. Nothing that either side has done in that terrible conflict comes close to the routine brutality of the Islamic State."

Frida Ghitis, CNN: "Preventing genocide, saving the Yazidis, is an imperative humanitarian goal in itself. But stopping (the al-Qaeda offshoot) is indispensable for global stability. ... It's not only up to the dysfunctional Iraqi parliament to provide support. There is an important role for world powers — for the United States — in helping save the Middle East from one of the most ruthless and dangerous organizations operating today in one of the most important parts of the globe."

David French, National Review: "America abandoned Iraq so that our president could claim that he ended a war — and consequently empowered a psychopathic death cult that was on the verge of extinction. And now that death cult is on the verge of genocide. ... The only thing that separates the people of Israel from sharing the fate of the Christians in Mosul or the Yazidi on Mount Sinjar in Iraq is that Israelis are protected by F-16s, tanks and trained troops. Iraqi Christians and Yazidi used to be."

Michael P. Noonan, U.S. News and World Report: "An effort should be made to allow any members of the ethnic minorities who worked alongside the U.S. to immigrate to the USA on humanitarian grounds with minimal bureaucratic red tape and delays."